How did they screw up the single player that bad?

[Turalyon]

Are we sure that she was under the Dark Voice's control back then?

Again, you're assuming that Kerrigan was under the Dark Voice's control from the get-go.

Of course I'm assuming the DV is in control of Kerrigan because it's a stance that Alar and Laurentian brought up and I'm theory-crafting on it. It's not something I actually think is happening.

Discounting my ideas of what the Dark Voice is, which is 95% fanon, I'm wondering if controlling a single mind is a taxing process for it. What if compound minds, like the Overmind, are easier to control?

Good luck on Blizzard trying to explain this one without sounding as if they've disappeared up their own butt...

Even then, we know that the mind control isn't 100% effective: The Overmind did, after all, leave Kerrigan free willed and go through this whole gambit.
And really, it's not that hard to swallow. Look at Saren from Mass Effect. Even after Sovereign 'upgraded' him, he was able to apologize and put a gun to his head when he realized that he was being used. With enough doublethink, what could something as intelligent as the Overmind have done?

The term "No free will" does not really imply anything less than 100% control of Overmind.

It remains to be seen if Kerrigan really had free will in Sc1 as WoL implies otherwise with the QoB being a separate and dominant entity which is or is not what the Overmind wants to free the Zerg (?) It's an unnecessarily convoluted mess which makes you wonder if they're are really any stable foundations for any other character in the universe (Raynor is really half-protoss. What? Wasn't it obvious?)

The problem is, Kerrigan is still jacked into the collective mind of the Swarm, and is open to the Dark Voice's influence, even if it does take a while. This is where the Artifact comes in. By de-infesting her (and who knows what else it does) it temporarily interrupts the Dark Voice's control and lets Kerrigan get her bearings before rejoining the fight.

The other problem is that Kerrigan doesn't know any of this. My theory is, the Overmind was working on this part of the plan.
Or maybe Narud is part of some agency that is fighting against the Dark Voice, and the Overmind was banking on someone like him to pick up the pieces?

Why is/is not Kerrigan under the control of the DV and for how long and when? Why is the artifact doing this or that to her? How did the Overmind foresee that this would even work (as it seems that he's succeeding despite so-called set-backs)?

No matter how you answer them, there are way too many 'convenient' turns of fate here to be believable. There's nothing worse than a story literally saying "it just so happens that this and this happens" because all we get is an endless cycle of it.

The way I see it, she set out to find that danger on the horizon. When she met up with Zeratul, she had found that danger, and realized what it was doing to her. And after that, the Dark Voice had complete influence.

So, she initially sought out the prophecies and the artifacts as a way to save herself, and then as a way to prevent any other agency from using them against her.

This all sounds like very important material to the cohesiveness of the plot. If this is true, why omit it or not elaborate to make her character less obtuse?

[Aldrius]

Also she will apparently reinfest herself in order to get revenge on Mengsk...for infesting herself in the first place. Irony or just bad writing? Oh and "evil" Kerrigan didn't seem all that mad at him for some reason yet "good" Kerrigan wants him dead so erm why didn't she kill him before?

Evil Kerrigan hated him, she just got her revenge and then she stopped caring.

Seriously, if you read the plot description for HotS, it's BASICALLY just Brood War except it's less interesting, driven and will probably meander like crazy the way Wings of Liberty did. (And I kinda LIKE Wings of Liberty, save everything to do with Kerrigan, Zeratul and Mengsk who are horribly out of character.)

Like seriously, let's just LOOK at the plot descriptions for HotS and Brood War.

I would describe Brood War as thus:

+Kerrigan gets back free-will. (In a sense at least, she was much more personally driven and thoughtful in Brood War than she had been in classic StarCraft)
+Kerrigan wants revenge on those who she feels wronged her. (i.e. the Protoss, Mengsk, Zeratul)
+Civil War breaks out amongst the swarm due to a power vacuum.
+Kerrigan wishes to grow in power (though in this case it's more like prove her power) and strength in the sector.

That's... basically EXACTLY the same as the plot description for Heart of the Swarm. Kerrigan being out for blood, wanting power back, everything is the same.

Except with... long-winded pretentious dialogue and a RIDICULOUS amnesia subplot. Like Brood War was actually genuinely mysterious and kind of enthralling. Even if you knew all the answers before they happened, it was still a fairly atmospheric story.

[Quirel]

Of course I'm assuming the DV is in control of Kerrigan because it's a stance that Alar and Laurentian brought up and I'm theory-crafting on it. It's not something I actually think is happening.

Well, you seem to have left the Dark Voice's degree of control out of your theorycrafting. That's all I was trying to point out.

Good luck on Blizzard trying to explain this one without sounding as if they've disappeared up their own butt...

"It's like an antenna. Each mind can only be weakly influenced, but together as a whole, the influence is compounded and much more dramatic. Kerrigan was not a hive mind like the Overmind, but was connected to one, influencing it and letting it influence her. Therefore, the Dark Voice's attempts to control her were slowed."

The term "No free will" does not really imply anything less than 100% control of Overmind.

Which is why Blizzard ought to be retconning that, rather than some other things.

Why is/is not Kerrigan under the control of the DV and for how long and when?

Not under the control of the Dark Voice because the control takes time to establish.
Increasingly under the Dark Voice's influence post-"To Chain the Beast", under the Dark Voice's control sometime after that clash with Zeratul over the Xel Naga Prediction.

If the Dark Voice can most easily influence hive minds, and it needs the Zerg for whatever nefarious goal it had, then it probably tried to use the Second Overmind to regain control of the Zerg, if it ever lost that control.

After the UED got their hands on the Psi Disrupter despite Duran's best attempts, the Dark Voice probably facepalmed and went for plan B.

Why is the artifact doing this or that to her?

• It's the Xel Naga version of a Swiss Army Knife. De-infestation is only one of its uses, and whoever is behind Narud knew how to use it.
• The Xel Naga, in their experiments with lesser species, decided they needed a tool that could separate the various genetic ancestries of a given test subject and revert it to a given ancestor. They called it "Windows System Restore".
• It's a device for studying the historical evolution of species with "Purity of Essence".

Hell if I know. I'm just throwing ideas out here.

How did the Overmind foresee that this would even work (as it seems that he's succeeding despite so-called set-backs)?

Because there are other factions working against the Dark Voice, and the Overmind was counting on them stepping in?

No matter how you answer them, there are way too many 'convenient' turns of fate here to be believable. There's nothing worse than a story literally saying "it just so happens that this and this happens" because all we get is an endless cycle of it.

Which is why I hate predictions, period. Even if I'm reading a fantasy novel, I feel like tossing it aside as soon as I hear "Prophecy" mentioned.

Anyhow, StarCraft II isn't exactly the story I would have told either. I'm just trying to make the best of a botched story.

This all sounds like very important material to the cohesiveness of the plot. If this is true, why omit it or not elaborate to make her character less obtuse?

They should have. They honestly should have explored Kerrigan more, even if this isn't what they had in mind.

I think the problem is that the entire POV of the campaign is from an invisible camera floating above Raynor's shoulder. Maybe they never prioritized it, since Kerrigan is getting focused on in the next installment. Or maybe the writers never sat back and realized "Hey, this sort of thing needs to be flat-out told. You think we can cut the Hanson missions and focus on this?"

[Alar]

Maybe Blizzard is trying to say it's kind of like how angels in Heaven have no free will, and yet they can still break the rules and rebel against God?

Of course, I always thought that was the religion having a lot of contradictory bullshit, but let's not go into a debate about that, please.

I admit, I'm curious as to the direction Blizzard is going with this story. What are they trying to do? What story do they want to tell? WoL is no longer the story about a guy and a girl... the guy is now insignificant, and the girl is going to be the leader of one of the most powerful factions in the sector, and the fate of the universe might depend upon what she does.

[Laurentian]

I got the impression that the DV placed some sort of directive in the Overmind to kill the protoss rather than having outright control. Presumably Kerrigan has this directive in her as well so she needed to be deinfested in order to get rid of it so she can infest herself again without it, somehow. I mean her deinfestation was a side effect and the artifact should have some purpose besides being part of some inane attempt to assassinate her because otherwise it is just a timewaster that rather conveniently allows Kerrigan to ally with Raynor and Zeratul in good faith. This way it is part of an inane plot to defeat the hybrids.

I admit, I'm curious as to the direction Blizzard is going with this story. What are they trying to do? What story do they want to tell? WoL is no longer the story about a guy and a girl... the guy is now insignificant, and the girl is going to be the leader of one of the most powerful factions in the sector, and the fate of the universe might depend upon what she does.

I get the feeling that a big problem with WOL (and I can see with SC2 as a whole) is that no one really knew what story they were telling. Already in WOL they tried to combine the Fall of Mengsk, the Redemption of Kerrigan and the Menace of the Hybrids into one story and not very well. That leaked cinematic seems to settle the first two (rather lamely I must add) but the not the third which isn't mentioned at all!

The decision to make it a story about a guy and a girl was very strange considering that said story had been clearly shown dead and buried 3 times already. Not to mention the overly male fanbase wouldn't like it and SC is an RTS after all. Also said writers don't want to do romance so Kerrigan and Raynor barely interact in WOL and presumably won't have a lot of interaction in HOTS. Any tragic romance vibe which the story appears to going for isn't going to be done very well which is odd considering how they had to twist the story to cause it and make it the main story element at that when they could have just ignored it, especially if the writers don't want to tell that kind of story!

Evil Kerrigan hated him, she just got her revenge and then she stopped caring.

I guess that makes sense? I just think the fact that Kerrigan wants revenge again and starts caring again and wants him dead after being deinfested is rather odd since Evil Kerrigan is supposed to crazy and filled with rage and good Kerrigan isn't. Makes Mengsk's survival in BW look like some lazy way to avoid killing him. Which is was because now we see the problems it causes it SC2.

Seriously, if you read the plot description for HotS, it's BASICALLY just Brood War except it's less interesting, driven and will probably meander like crazy the way Wings of Liberty did. (And I kinda LIKE Wings of Liberty, save everything to do with Kerrigan, Zeratul and Mengsk who are horribly out of character.)

Yes, HOTS is looking to be pretty similar to BW and it is really disappointing since all the questions HOTS is asking were already answered in BW and then they retconned it to say she was mindcontrolled or whatever so they can rehash the same plot with different answers this time. And they could have easily have done this some other way.

Personally I can see why don't want to really acknowledge BW in SC2 since explaining that Kerrigan and Raynor hate Mengsk so much for betraying them that they restored to him to power so they can kill him later would make the story sound kind of silly. Or that Mengsk distrusts Kerrigan and knows he has no choice but to do her bidding but is shocked that she negotiated with him in bad faith! Or that the UED came out of nowhere because the writers saw the Starship Troopers movie.

I agree that HOTS will probably meander alot (let me guess 20 missions involving evolving the swarm, defeating renegade Broodmothers and fighting pissed off Protoss and Terrans and only 3 involving attacking Korhal) and her convenient amnesia will probably cause a few missions requiring her to recover memories she already learned and probably get manipulated by Duran/Narud/whoever since she doesn't remember him anymore. That said she will most likely accomplish what she set out to do at the beggining of HOTS which is more that can be said for WOL (even though this will probably render WOL mostly pointless).

And I did enjoy playing WOL but the storyline felt rather aimless and empty since you don't really DO anything and the only thing you do actually accomplish was rather abruptly and poorly introduced and is most likely done so you can spend part 2 rendering it pointless.

[Turalyon]

Well, you seem to have left the Dark Voice's degree of control out of your theorycrafting. That's all I was trying to point out.

Granted that this is important but it is a sidetrack since I was first replying to Alar's speculation that the DV had full control over Kerrigan and how untenable that position was.

"It's like an antenna. Each mind can only be weakly influenced, but together as a whole, the influence is compounded and much more dramatic. Kerrigan was not a hive mind like the Overmind, but was connected to one, influencing it and letting it influence her. Therefore, the Dark Voice's attempts to control her were slowed."

Sounds good but not I'm not sure if that bolded would logically hold any water. One would think that having multiple and compounded influences would mean that ultimate control over the Hivemind would be tenous as it would be highly diluted and have more points for failure. If Kerrigan, as one single mind, cannot be influenced fully than any one of the many minds in the hivemind may also do so.

Which is why Blizzard ought to be retconning that, rather than some other things.

Good lord! This was arguably one of the most important scenes in the SC mythology. As much as I didn't like the direction, if they have to resort to retconning in their current iteration (it was enough that they retconned their past iteration) of the story facts, then it's going to be hard to believe any other 'fact's' that they will drop later on. Slippery-slope here we come!!

Hell if I know. I'm just throwing ideas out here.

I didn't make it clear at the time but I wasn't necessarily fishing for answers for those questions I asked. They were meant to illustrate how much fan-conning needs to go on and how the current set-up opens the flood-gates to all this inane minutiae (which are admittedly important especially for sci-fi stories) which in the end detracts away from a telling a good story.

Which is why I hate predictions, period. Even if I'm reading a fantasy novel, I feel like tossing it aside as soon as I hear "Prophecy" mentioned.

They're not so bad as long as they're not presented with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

Maybe they never prioritized it, since Kerrigan is getting focused on in the next installment.

Since SC has historically used the middle chapter to get an insight of the main antagonist, it is somewhat interesting to see the focus being seemingly rigid on Kerrigan.

I noted elsewhere about Kerrigan being evil (again) so soon and the possibility of devaluing WoL of whatever potential it had generated. More than that, if Kerrigan does remain good (or protagonist for lack of a better word), how can they not represent the DV in an even more skewed and one-dimensional viewpoint (in HotS case, this'll be Kerrigan's) than it is now? I think they really need to show the DV (through it's eyes/viewpoint) and not tell (less of Raynor, Kerrigan, Zeratul and co. talking about and fearing it) in order for the antagonist to not seem so shallow. I somehow doubt that this'll come to light in HotS due to the sole focus on Kerrigan (as WoL was with Raynor).

[Laurentian]

I think they really need to show the DV (through it's eyes/viewpoint) and not tell (less of Raynor, Kerrigan, Zeratul and co. talking about and fearing it) in order for the antagonist to not seem so shallow. I somehow doubt that this'll come to light in HotS due to the sole focus on Kerrigan (as WoL was with Raynor).

I won't be surprised if we don't get a good look at the DV until the final few missions of LOTV. Which would make the whole game rather aimless and shallow unfortunately.

Since SC has historically used the middle chapter to get an insight of the main antagonist

I thought SC has historically used the middle chapter so it can be rendered pointless in part 3?

However it seems the purpose of part 2 is to undue part 1 this time. Though this ties into the whole bit about the terran campaigns not in the end accomplishing much and Raynor for that matter not really accomplishing anything.

[Eligor]

The Dark Voice is somewhat of a "Lovecraftian Horror from the Dawn of Time", not the sort of character that lends itself well to first person narratives. Although it'd be fun to have a campaign from Duran's point of view (if he is a separate entity from the Dark Voice that is). By the way, if we're already going to try and understand the rationale behind SC 2, something that no one here yet mentioned is that the Dark Voice claimed to be directly responsible for the creation/empowerment of the Protoss. Which is very supportive of the theory that he's a renegade "fallen" Xel'Naga who survived (and perhaps even engineered) their extermination by the Zerg (think the Xel'Naga version of Sargeras/Lucifer), he's even referred to as "the Fallen One".

I think it's somewhat pointless to try and understand the logic behind Kerrigan's character and the way Kerrigan in BW relates to Kerrigan in WoL, since that aspect of the story shows all the signs of being simply poorly thought out by the writers. Blizzard writers unfortunately think in terms of iterations when it comes to new installments in a story. Brood War for them is an old iteration to be discarded and/or retconned as they please. They're happy with this new idea of a split personality Kerrigan (for characters of the same pattern as they want Kerrigan to be look up: Gollum, Jean Grey) because they think that a "conflicted" character is more complex, "literary" and interesting, no matter how ham-fistedly written. Any other considerations such as "how well this new Kerrigan meshes with the Kerrigan in BW" are just not important to them.

[Turalyon]

I thought SC has historically used the middle chapter so it can be rendered pointless in part 3?

Well, this is kind of true in a way too. Strictly speaking, the middle chapters in SC and BW have been used to build up the antagonist (Zerg, UED) as a credible threat only for them to be ultimately brought down in the last chapter. However, without the sense pathos generated by the antagonists in the middle chapters to rival that of the protagonists (imagine just skipping the Zerg and UED campaigns), Starcraft would have been arguably less memorable.

Though this ties into the whole bit about the terran campaigns not in the end accomplishing much and Raynor for that matter not really accomplishing anything.

I'm not sure if you're referring also to SC's Terran campaign Rebel Yell as well here. If you are, I have to disagree on the basis that it is an effective introduction to the world. Yes, it deals only with Terran matters which are trivial to the end (Tassadar destroying the Overmind) but it cleverly intersperses the importance of the Zerg (and the Protoss, yet this is more subtle) in Terran matters and, unbeknownst to the Terrans at the time, that the Zerg are more than what the egocentric Terrans initially thought them to be. By the time The Inauguration ends, there's a growing sense that the Terrans (and the player themselves) are now aware of other potentially greater dangers than Terrans which primes the player for their justified threat (as is shown explicitly when confronted with the alien-ness of the Overmind straight after Rebel Yell).

[GnaReffotsirk]

Yeah it was a good act II transition. The true source of the problem is revealed to the characters and the player as well.